It is true that, prior to 1860, the abolitionists were not numerous
in the North; and it is equally true that by many of the best men in
the South the institution which had been bequeathed to them was
thoroughly detested. Looking back over the years which have elapsed
since the slaves were freed, the errors of the two factions are
sufficiently manifest. If, on the one hand, the abolitionist,
denouncing sternly, in season and out of season, the existence of
slavery on the free soil of America, was unjust and worse to the
slave-owner, who, to say the least, was in no way responsible for the
inhuman and shortsighted policy of a former generation; on the other
hand the high-principled Southerner, although in his heart deploring
the condition of the negro, and sometimes imitating the example of
Washington, whose dying bequest gave freedom to his slaves, made no
attempt to find a remedy.* (* On the publication of the first edition
my views on the action of the abolitionists were traversed by critics
whose opinions demand consideration. They implied that in condemning
the unwisdom and violence of the anti-slavery party, I had not taken
into account the aggressive tendencies of the Southern politicians
from 1850 onwards, that I had ignored the attempts to extend slavery
to the Territories, and that I had overlooked the effect of the
Fugitive Slave Law.
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